Mathematic Outreach Program for Primary

School based on STREAM Curriculum

∗a
Zarith Sofiah Othman , Norbaiti Tukimanb, Ahmad Khudzairi Khalidc, and Nur Intan
Syafinaz Ahmadd
*a
Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, UniVERsiti Teknologi MARA Selangor Branch,
Dengkil Campus, 43800 Dengkil, Selangor, Malaysia
b,c,d
Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, UniVERsiti Teknologi MARA Johor Branch, Pasir
Gudang Campus, 81750 Masai, Johor, Malaysia

Learning process have been evolved from time to time. In this 21 st century most of the
learning process have been done through different type of technology. This is
because the new generation can easily learn through technology rather than the
conventional way. In line with this effort, an STEM innovation approach are aiming at
helping students understand and accept learning in a better way. One of the
approach are mathematical learning innovation outside of the classroom. This
innovation is based on the curriculum of STREAM and fulfills the mathematics
syllabus at primary level. This project name is ‘BizMath Challenge’. The curriculum of
STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Art, Mathematic) applied in this innovation
project are introduces to nurture value in learning through five scopes of education.
This project is created by the concept of IQ (Intelligent Quotient), EQ (Emotional
Quotient), problem solving and innovation design. The Likert scale range from 1
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) are been used to measure the variables. The
results show that this program helps improve skills and mathematical knowledge, also
gives students a lot of benefits rather than conventional methods. Conventional
methods are less attractive expecially to student who prefer learning outside their
classroom and they can also connect the lesson with their environment and everyday
life.

Keywords: Mathematics Outreach Program, Primary School Students, STREAM

1.0 Introduction
In line with the industrial revolution 4.0, the field of STEM is the fastest growing field in the world. STEM was
first introduced and implemented in Malaysia several years ago [1]. The meaning behind STEM is Technology
and Mathematical Engineering (STEM). STEM is a field of knowledge that integrates learning in the areas of
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Application and integration of Engineering practices with
Science and Mathematics subjects that foster collaboration and communication between students to design
technologies that solve real-world problems [2,3].
The concept of STEM to STREAM learning in Mathematics and Science has been introduced long ago in
Malaysia [4]. However, not many educators are able to implement this method in their learning and teaching
sessions as well as in their activities outside of the classroom. This is because the method of inquiry discovery is
quite difficult to implement and not many modules have been developed to help educators to apply this method
in their teaching and learning. The different between STEM fields with STREAM fields are the integrate art and
reading so that through aesthetics and creativity, children's interest in STEM fields can be nurtured more easily.
Readiness is also a part of STEM as it is the basis for future child abuse. So, if tutors or teachers want to train
innovative and successful scientists, technologists or anyone else, they need to instill and teach them to love and
appreciate reading. By adding art and reading into the STEM model, it brings a multidisciplinary approach and
is an agent that promotes cross-curricular teaching. The STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Art,
Mathematics) curriculum used in this innovation module was introduced to foster value in learning through five
areas of education [3,5]. STREAM based learning is important to ensure that students truly understand what
they are learning, improve their attitude toward learning and enhance their ability to apply what they are
learning in the real world. Inquiries start with questions or problems and are followed by observation,
exploration, investigation or experimentation, conclusion and explanation (communication). The development
of modules based on the STREAM curriculum enables students to use their curiosity to explore areas of
knowledge learned especially in Science and Mathematics education.
2.0 Literature Review
There are many module related to STEM that been designed and developed to improve students’s attitude
toward learning. In 2019, a module as an alternative to increase students’ interest and understanding in solving
synopsis of learning in STEM was developed. The module had been successfully created and proven that STEM
can enhance the knowledge, skills and attitudes towards science and mathematics [6]. Another module was
created for 96 students from 22 primary school in mathematics subject to help students in reducing their
mathematics anxiety and increase their appreciation of mathematics [7]. There was a STEM module that created
to identify students’ interest based on detective role-play setup and their impact of the neer-peer mentoring
approach. They were using the stations full with samples collected from the crime scene such as fingerprinting,
bool typing and others [8].
STEM Education encourage students to explore real life problem based on inquiry based, project based
and problem based [9]. This newly approach includes all level of educations from primary to the university’s
student. STEM education are widely used in this modern days to achieve the broad application for workers in
both STEM and non-STEM education and also to meet demands of STEM-driven economy 2020 [10]. Terry
Dubetz and Jo Ann Wilson, has done a study on a program call GEMS (Girl Engineering Mathematics and
Science), group of middle school girl who have been exposed to additional learning experiences beyond the
classroom. In this program students are provided with hands-on activities in which they are exposed to
laboratory and field experiences. This outreach program provides students with the exposure of variety fields of
science, engineering and mathematics and also prepare them to the world of higher education. Throughout this
program, student has gain a lot of confidence by learning outside of their major fields study and increase their
understanding of sciences. Thus, GEMS gives positive outcome to the students learning experiences. Another
different perspective of the positive outcome is students eager to attend university after finishing school. This
was importance to make sure most of a student are well educated and knowledgeable [11].
For a young children a holistic education is crucial for the development of their wellbeing. Challenges
for tomorrow are more complex and unpredictable. Thus, children needs to be equipped with a perfect education
system to require them to have extensive interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to become success in the future
[12]. That is how STEM, STEAM and STREAM education are coming up. STEM, STEAM and STREAM are
all referring to teaching and learning strategy that involving the application of knowledge, skills and values in
the varieties of fields. STEM which stand for science, technology, engineering and mathematics are the earliest
strategy that has been develop. In the earliest time, it is essential for all the educator to prepare and educate their
students in this strategy due to the positive impact that gives students. For quite a while STEM has been
recognize in our education system. But soon after that, art field was added to the STEM which become STEAM.
By corporation art in the STEM, this allowed children to be more creative and increase their technical skill [2].
In 2015, Wok Seok Seo and Chang Hoon Leo has done a case study of STEAM outreach program development
and their application. In this study, 184 middle and high school students are involved. Throughout this study,
students’ workbook, teachers’ guidebook and the program operation manual for staffs in a university were
developed by an experts. The purpose of this study were not just to developed a module for STEAM education
but also to analyst the satisfaction level with the contents and activity. At the end of the study, activation plan
was discussed from the finding for the sustainable development and operation of the STEAM outreach program
[12]. Not so long after that, it has been evolved to STREAM which means science, technology, reading,
engineering, arts and mathematics. Reading are added because it is recognize as a foundation to all the other
subject. Art and reading are also added to encourage those with analytical minds to be more creative and think
out of the box. [4].
Due to many benefits of STREAM education, recently a lot of studied had been done and one of them
were from Tamara et al. in 2019. The main purpose of the study wass to establish two-way communication
between the computer game design process using a robotic system and Arduino microcontroller sensors. The
computer game that had been developed was using STREAM element to strengthen a motivational activity. In
the process five computer games had been created using the Scratch software tool for managing graphic objects
based on signals from the Arduino UNO microcontroller sensors [13]. A study related to the system also had
been done in 2017. Acording to Lommatzsch et al., the studied was to provide the effectiveness of instructors
teached the news recommender system to their students. Besides, students will experienced the realistic
condition and to enlarged their skills to be future data scientists [14]. In 2020, a research studied to explore
primary teachers view towards STREAM in their teaching and learning. The positive result occurred, however,
they need to prepare the technology and other supporting equipment in order to achieve the good holistic view
in STREAM education [15]. There was a studied in reducing the work stress level among primary teachers. The
value of STREAM mapping in education approach can overcome the work-related stress of teachers in
educational services. The results gathered from this studied was very practical and can be implemented on short
term only. Hence, the new study need to be done in other to get the positive results [16].
3.0 The Program
In an effort to interest children in this area of STREAM, the authors have developed the STREAM Module,
called the BizMath Challenge known as Business Mathematics Challenge. The program was design as a half
day program at UiTM Johor branch, Pasir Gudang Campus and successfully conducted fully using the BizMath
Challenge module developed by lecturers from the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, UiTM Johor
branch, Pasir Gudang Campus. It was facilitated by ten undergraduates students in this university. The lesson is
divided into four modules which were created by the concept of Intelligent Quotient (IQ), Emotional Quotient
(EQ), problem solving and innovation design. In the IQ session, students will be given different level of
question to answer while in the EQ session, students will be given a task to evaluate their emotional quotient. In
the next session, students will be given question based on the problem solving problem and lastly, they must
construct innovation design based on what they have from the problem solving session. All the four modules
were conducted in Bahasa Melayu.

3.1 BizMath Challenge Program

All four modules were conducted in groups. Students will be in the same group from Modul 1: IQ to Module 4:
Innovation Design.

3.1.1 Modul 1: Intelligent Quotient (IQ)

The IQ module was taken from Chapter 5 standard 6 Mathematics Subject which is Money Topic. The objective
of this module is to expose students the concept of money in primary school. The questions will be given in
three level difficulties which were easy, medium and difficult. Each level had their own amount of money.
Students who answered the question correctly will get the money regarding the types of level that successfully
solved. The more difficult the question is, the more money they will be given also vise versa.

3.1.2 Modul 2: Emotional Quotient (EQ)

In this EQ module, students will be given the set of 3D puzzle. The objective of the module is to increase the
intelligence, to examine the emotional quotient level, to increase the focus stage and to test the level of
understanding in installation instructions. This module was suitable for children who is six year olds and above.
Students need to assemble the 3D puzzle in given time. The faster they completed the installation of the 3D
puzzle, they will win the competition and they will be given an amount of money regarding the place winning in
the competion. For example if they won the first place they will get the higest value of money.

3.1.3 Modul 3: Problem Solving

In this module, the money collected from Module 1 and Module 2 will be merged. The objective of this module
is to increase the confidence level of students to spend the money effectively without being overpriced or short
of money. They will be given instruction by the facilitators to disscuss the items that need to buy in 10 minutes.
Next, a student representative will be given 5 minutes to buy the items in the store provided by the facilitator.
Then, the facilitator will calculate the total price of the items that they bought. If the total price of the items were
more or less than the amount of money earned, a penalty will be imposed on the students’ group.

3.1.4 Modul 4: Innovation Design

The objective of this module is to practice the ideas generated to create the dream garden. Students were given
30 minutes to complete the dream garden using the material purchased in Module 3. After compete the task, the
two judges will examine using the given rubrics. The group that meets the criteria of a dream garde will be
counted as the winner.

3.2 Research Methodology

There are 40 students standard six from primary school at Sek. Keb. Bandar Seri Alam (SKBSA) located in
Johor, Malaysia were joined the program Bizmath challenge. Most of their background level of mathematics is
fair. In this study, we design a structured questionnaire to achieve the objectives of our study. The questionnaire
was distributed to students before and after the program. The questionnaire divide into three sections; A, B, and
C. In part A, the questionnaire needs to know the level of interest and fun learning. We want to compare the use
of classical indoor inquiry method and active learning games outdoor learning method based inquiry mixed
problems through the Bizmath challenge program. Part B describes the role of facilitators in the success of the
program and Part C, to get the feedback of the whole program, whether it improves students' knowledge, skills
and attracts the student in mathematics's subject.
We exclude part A in our analysis because a few students do not answer the questions and thus involve
missing data. Therefore, we only analyze part B and part C only since all students answer the questionnaire after
the program. The instrument used was a stucted questionnaire with Likert scale range from 1 (strongly disagree)
to 5 (strongly agree) to measure the variables. The description of the questionnaire items is in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Summary description section B and C questionnaire in Bizmath Challenge

Section Variables Description
F1 The Facilitators very cooperative and help students throughout the program.
B F2 The facilitators have the knowledge and skills in the program
F3 The facilitator encourages and motivates students to study mathematics
P1 This program promotes teamwork among students
P2 This program helps students learn the various mathematical solution methods
P3 This program builds self-confidence in mathematics solutions
P4 This program increases the morale of doing mathematics exercises
This program can improve the interest and motivate students to study
C P5
mathematics
P6 The time allotted to students is sufficient
P7 The program objectives are organized and tailored to the students
P8 The program should continue in the future
The whole program helps improve skills, mathematical knowledge and benefits
P9
students

4.0 Finding and Discussion

We used R statistics programming to run descriptive analysis and correlation analysis. The
questionnaire in section B and C have been analyzed. Both sections summary descriptive is presented detail in
Table 3.2.
Table 3.2 Descriptive summary variables section B and C in Bizmath Challenge
Variables Mean SD Median Min Max Valid number
F1 4.6 0.55 5 3 5 40
F2 4.55 0.6 5 3 5 40
F3 4.62 0.7 5 2 5 40
P1 4.65 0.58 5 3 5 40
P2 4.55 0.64 5 2 5 40
P3 4.55 0.68 5 2 5 40
P4 4.58 0.64 5 3 5 40
P5 4.62 0.63 5 3 5 40
P6 4.55 0.71 5 2 5 40
P7 4.65 0.53 5 3 5 40
P8 4.62 0.59 5 3 5 40
P9 4.65 0.53 5 3 5 40

From Table 3.2 we can observed that the mean for all variables is from range 4.55 to 4.65. The value
show quite high mean since the maximum value of Likert scale is 5. Furthermore, the median of the variables
also show all are same at maximum value, 5. The lowest mean in section B is F2,the facilitators have the
knowledge and skills in the program. I this program, lecturers have appinted diploma students in semester 1 to
be facilitators for the program. The lack of knowledge and skill in the program maybe because of several
students are first time involve in outreach program, thus a few particpipants are not comfortable and sometimes
do not understand to tackle participant problems. However, the value is not too worst since the value scale is
show more than 3 (fair) scale in measure of this variable.
In section C, we have the feedback of the whole program, whether it improves students' knowledge,
skills and attracts the student in mathematics's subject. The result shows the highest value is 4.65 for three
variable P1, P7 and P9. Whereas the lowest value is 4.55 for three variables also, P2, P3 and P6. We also can
observed the several ouliers inccur in variables P2, P3 and P6 in Figure 3.1. P6 more outliers since the standard
deviation is to far from the central mean,that is 0.7. It follow by P3 and P2 with their standard deviation 0.68
and 0.64 respectively. Therefore, the variables P7, P2 and P3 need to be improved a little bit to tailored with
standard school level. Besides, the facilitators need to be train enough to help students or participants built up
their confidence level and learn the various of methods in order to solve mathematical problems.

Figure 3.1 Boxplot variables in section C

However, from the overall result, we can be viewed that the whole program helps improve skills,
mathematical knowledge, and benefits students (P9) with the highest mean value score of 4.65. Furthermore,
students support the program with questionnaire P8 to continue this program in the future (4.62).
Table 3.3 is the summarization of the correlation matrix between the variables in section C. The bold
color shows the highest and lowest correlation value. Through the correlation analysis, the result shows that
variable P3 and P4 have the highest correlation of 0.855 at a significant level of 0.001. It indicates there is a
strong positive association between the morale of doing mathematics exercises and builds self-confidence in
mathematics solutions. The more students doing exercise, the more self-confidence will be developed. Therefore
it can make a positive impact to improve student's performance and ability to solve problems in mathematics.

Table 3.3 The correlation and significance level for variables in section C.
  P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9
P1 ***** 0.608 0.654 0.807 0.645 0.643 0.33 0.344 0.623
P2 <0.001 ***** 0.659 0.706 0.61 0.335 0.259 0.212 0.451
P3 <0.001 <0.001 ***** 0.855 0.763 0.51 0.512 0.569 0.802
P4 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 ***** 0.768 0.557 0.466 0.388 0.746
P5 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 ***** 0.655 0.343 0.399 0.629
P6 <0.001 0.035 0.001 <0.001 <0.001 ***** 0.614 0.651 0.635
P7 0.037 0.107 0.001 0.002 0.03 <0.001 ***** 0.683 0.524
P8 0.03 0.189 <0.001 0.013 0.011 <0.001 <0.001 ***** 0.671
P9 <0.001 0.004 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.001 <0.001 *****

While P2 and P8 show the lowest correlation at 0.212, but the value is not significant. Therefore, we
can conclude, P2 and P8 is not correlate to each other. For variable P9 all the variables are correlated with
significant value at below 0.005 or <0.005. The highest is at 0.802 (P3), and the lowest is at 0.451(P2).
Therefore, the variables can assist the measurement of the program to improve students in their learning or
outreach program learning in mathematics subjects or other subjects.

5.0 Conclusion
The BizMath Challenge module has been developed based on the STREAM element and its activity generally
based on inquiry learning. The study has shown that BizMath Challenge Programme based on the STREAM
element and inquiry based learning approach can enhance students' knowledge, skills and attitudes towards
Mathematics subjects. Not only that, these activities can produce students who are critical, creative, imaginative
and able to use their curiosity to explore new fields of knowledge. The students involved in this study are
excited to learn about STREAM and enjoy STREAM knowledge from the modules provided in the context of
actual application based inquiry. It can be concluded that BizMath Challenge Programme can make a positive
impact to improve student’s performance and ability to solve problem in mathematics real life problems.
Therefore, in order to realize the first shift in the Education Development Plan 2013-2025, which is to
strengthen STEM education for school students, as educators we must transform from within ourselves. We are
faced with the present generation who need to be prepared with the right thoughts, experiences and knowledge
about STEM and STREAM to enable them to pursue their increasingly challenging future. As such, educators as
change agents do a great job of preparing students for change. Educators should start getting acquainted with
STREAM projects and inquiry based learning activities. In addition, educators also need to review STEM
reading materials to build or enhance accurate knowledge and understanding of STEM. The production of
modules also needs to follow all the elements in STREAM itself so that the purpose and intent of writing can be
conveyed to the reader. Clearly, the study conducted under the BizMath Challenge will serve as an alternative
source of reference and education in schools to support national education policy in strengthening and
strengthening the development of educational development plans for 21st Century Learning excellence.

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